Bee's Knees Mocktail Spritz

Whether you're practicing dry (or damp) January or not, winter is the perfect time to swap your favorite cocktail for a mocktail. This Bee’s Knees mocktail spritz, inspired by the gin-based classic drink, has lemon, a sweet honey syrup, and is topped off with club soda. Here, we add a fresh garnish of lemon peel and sugared rosemary for a mocktail you'll want to make all winter long.

Alcohol-free spirits are widely available now, and alcohol-free gin contains all the essential herbal notes that gin has, such as juniper, citrus, and other botanicals. This drink is shaken with equal parts syrup, fresh lemon juice, and non-alcoholic gin. To turn this simple mocktail into a bright and refreshing beverage, take a few extra minutes to make honey syrup and prepare sugared rosemary for the garnish.

The recipe below calls for just one serving of honey syrup and one rosemary sprig, but feel free to scale up; the ratio for the syrup is one-to-two parts honey to water. I recommend making a larger batch of the syrup and rosemary so it’s easier to make this cocktail for two or more servings.

This drink is best shaken in a cocktail shaker and served in a chilled glass. If you don’t have a cocktail shaker, place all the drink ingredients in a tall glass with ice, use a bar spoon, or a tall spoon, and stir the ingredients until chilled. Or better yet, combine all the ingredients in a mason jar with ice and shake away. Be sure to strain the drink into a wide-stem glass. Then top off the glass with club soda, a curl of lemon peel, and a sugared rosemary sprig.

Did you try making this? Let us know how it went in the comments!